These are a few more of the portraits I’ve taken over the last months. I’m pretty pleased with how they’ve turned out, for the most part. This first one is of a friend of mine, taken at a birthday party. It was part accident, in that he was moving his face across the lens at the time, but the focus worked almost perfectly (could have been tighter on the eyes) and I loved the unusual, spontaneous crop and intense depth of field that resulted- so much detail on the face and such a strong connection with the lens. Nice one, Isaac.

I like this shot. This is T., and he’s a happy baby right here. And look at all that cute baby-fat. Getting these photos took a little effort. We were indoors, in an overhung porch area, so the light was low and therefore getting the little tykes to sit still long enough to be photographed without going blurry was tricky. Additionally, getting the right focus, with shallow depth of field and a wriggly child, was a definite challenge. It paid off for me on this one though. Such a cute face, and I like the texture of the little red chair he’s hanging off as well.

This is my buddy whose daughters I posted photos of in my last set of portraits. On his home in suburban Phoenix, they keep a clutch of hens, a dog, a cat, several goats, and three gorgeous kids. They also have a horse. Timing is everything, and I love the timing of this shot- a little moment of affection, which the horse seems to be relishing. Technically, the picture is sharp and well lit, with the background thrown out a little by depth of field. If my buddy was looking at the camera, his eyes would be in shadow due to the harsh overhead sun, but in this case, it doesn’t matter as much, because (unusually for a portrait) in this moment, the eyes are closed. I personally like this shot because it tells a story, and one that shows a side to him that even I haven’t really seen before; when we were growing up, he was never particularly into horses, but because his wife loves them, they’ve since become a part of his life.

This is my lovely wife. She won’t like me for posting this photo, because as she points out, you don’t usually capture someone’s best side when you photograph them from below. But I like this one, because I guess it’s a little unusual, and also because I love the halo of clouds behind her and the dramatic light. I guess it’s got nice connotations for me too, as we were on holiday at Wilson’s Prom at the time. But really, I just like how the shot turned out. And I like my wife :)

These two, P and C, are brother and sister, and cousins to T, above. C is freshly-baked, just four months old here, and P thinks she’s great. It was a very cute moment. My only regret for this little photoshoot was that the angle and the space I was shooting in didn’t let me get all three of them in their little chairs side-by-side. That, and the chance of getting all three little ones looking at the camera at one time and looking vaguely happy? Seriously, I don’t know how professional portrait photographers do it.

Oh, well they use those little squeaky ducky things, don’t they.

This is Steph. Steph is awesome. If you know Steph, you know she’s a free spirit, full of character and energy, and a genuinely fun and lovely person to be around. I think this photo captures a little of that spirit. Sure, you can’t see her eyes, and that’s a downer from a portraiture perspective. But she’s got such a big smile on her face that communicates that sense of fun that I think it matters less.

This might be my favourite portrait of 2012. Visiting a dear friend and his family in Savannah, Ga., a couple of months back, I managed to gatecrash a family reunion. Being the resident photographer on hand, and seeing as that meant they could all be in the pictures together, I took some group photos for them- not my forte as a photographer, but I guess it’s all about learning, right? After the shoot, K. stepped away with her daughter and I managed to get this image of them together. It’s a lovely, tender moment, utterly natural and unposed, and I love the affection on K’s face, as well as the crisp focus on the subjects and the almost featureless, blurred out background. You can click on this picture to view it larger.

I’ve featured my step-daughter on my blog a bunch of times- because although I don’t put too much personal stuff on here, she’s a photogenic little thing and a lot of fun to photograph. In fact, there were pictures of her up on this blog long before she was my stepdaughter. I’ve referred to her variously as M., or more recently, as my wife has taken to referring to her over on her blog, as Magic. However, I’ve recently decided that from now on, she will be called Tangled. For the uninitiated, Tangled is Disney’s latest Princess movie, featuring Rapunzel, she of long blonde hair fame. It’s actually a very cute movie- probably my favourite of the Princess cartoons (yes, I’ve seen a bunch of them now…), and because one of my step-daughter’s most prominent features, together with her bubbly personality, is her epic mass of tangled blonde hair (tamed like it rarely is in this photo), I think it works. The movie Tangled is one of her favourites too, and people who’ve seen it often tell her she reminds them of Rapunzel, so all up, that’s the way we’re going with this for now. These two shots were taken in Thailand. In the one above, she’s getting stuck in to a serve of whipped cream on top of her banana smoothie, definitely a preferred past-time. In this last one, she’s giving us her puppy-dog expression, which is generally synonymous with her being very excited about something (such as finishing off the whipped cream from a banana smoothie).

Well, I guess being around home in Melbourne has given me a bit more time to hang out with friends and family, and one thing that has definitely been happening to a lot of my friends is… babies. Just at that age I guess. So I’ve spent a bit more time taking shots of them.

As those who’ve followed my blog and photos over the years know, portraiture is a newer venture of mine- probably something I’ve only really started to branch into over the last few years. Baby portraiture, even more recently.

Babies are an interesting thing, photographically speaking. On the one hand, they don’t move too fast, so it’s fairly easy to frame them up. On the other, it can be hard getting them to look at the camera- and even harder to get them to smile when they do. I haven’t mastered that technique yet, that’s for sure. Patience when taking photos of babies is a must.

As always with portraits, the number one thing, above all else, is to get the eyes right. You want them to be clear, sharp, open and expressive. They also need to be lit properly. I always prefer natural light over flash photography, and candid portraiture over posed. But the best thing about photographing babies is, in my opinion, that they don’t have any of the reserves or veils that people get when you take a photo. Their eyes express pure emotion. That emotion may simply be ‘what the heck is this thing being stuck in my face?’, but it’s honest nonetheless- there’s none of the facade that big people tend to put in front of their faces.

I enjoyed taking this lot, and I hope to get many more opportunities.

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